[Pil-pc-oceania] New, old mag to feed Permaculture minds in Australia

[pacific-edge]

Fellow permaculturists... we are once again free to indulge in the
delicious, tactile experience or paper and the satisfying, crumpling sound
of the turned page while we feast our eyes over large, clear and full-colour
photos and feed our brains with the meaning embodied in the text of a
Permaculture publication.

Yes, this is just a convoluted way of saying that there is a Permaculture
print magazine again available in this country. I came across it at Borders
bookshop in downtown Sydney this afternoon. It is 'Permaculture' magazine
from the UK (www.permaculture.co.uk), a long-running publication that was,
in the mid-1990s, brought in by PIL when they were based in Lismore and
published PIJ... ah, PIJ, how we miss you.

Granted, this newly-available magazine is from the other side of the planet
and the British way of describing things is sometimes... how do I say this
without being seen as something like a rogue state by those people on their
small island... sometimes a little strange to our ears. Nonetheless,
Permaculture is a great magazine and has a focus well beyond gardening,
though that too is covered. Interesting in the currently available edition
is the story of developments in the quaint little village called Totnes,
something I have been watching online for some time and thinking about how
we can implement something like it here.

The only downer with Permaculture magazine, as it is available in Australia,
is that only available is the air freight, current edition, and while that
might satisfy permaculturists with deep and full pockets, the cost of $17
will prove a little steep for some.

Another British magazine - two, in fact - are available from Gleebooks in
Glebe, Sydney. They are 'Resurgence', a somewhat arty and philosophical
publication that nevertheless carries interesting and pertinent articles,
and the more-advocatory 'The Ecologist'. Both are long-running magazines and
both will set you back something around the $12 to $15 range.

There's also a new Australian 'green' mag, though I can't recall its name.
It covers household sustainability and the first edition, although
graphically attractive, seemed to offer little that was new or that
presented previously-reported stories with a new angle or new information
(how my editor used to stress that the only justification for re-visiting a
previously-reported story was that it brought new information or an
unreported angle).

Well, I'm sure that 'Permaculture' will be a welcome addition to our
literary and activist lives. Maybe we should think of its cost as equivalent
to two visits to a café for cappuccino and baklava, and forego those
instead.

...Russ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism,
instructional manuals, media services for overseas aid

PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info

TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^